Norwich City Racers 2Stowmarket SophtLogic 1 STOWMARKET bowed out of the Women's FA Cup after coming off second best in this derby tie at Plantation Park.

Norwich City Racers 2

Stowmarket SophtLogic 1

STOWMARKET bowed out of the Women's FA Cup after coming off second best in this derby tie at Plantation Park.

Following a 2-1 first round

success at Brentford in the first round, hopes were high that they would see off their rivals from across the border.

Stowmarket sta

Rachel Gwilliams played in

captain Debbie Morley, who outpaced the defence but saw her shot crash back off an upright.

Fortunately, Gwilliams was following up and scored her first goal of the season as she pounced on the rebound 12 yards out.

Striker Jo Welham saw her half-volley disallowed minutes later for offside, but this did not dishearten Stowmarket and they continued to hound the Norwich defence.

But the visitors lost concentration on the stroke of half-time and were punished when the defence was split open to allow Vanessa Kemp to slot home the equaliser from close range.

Norwich upped the tempo after the break and Stowmarket were struggling to cope with the aerial presence of their central midfielder, Kim Robinson.

In the 48th minute, Gwilliams was punished for a push in the area and Kemp converted from the spot to fire the home side in front.

Stowmarket failed to regain their grip on the game.

Although their defence coped admirably, there were few attacking options for the front players and they trooped off at the end knowing they had under-performed.

They have a quick opportunity tonight to avenge their KO, when Racers are the visitors to Green Meadow in a league game.

Just one point separates the two teams, so the incentive for Stowmarket to win is that they would leapfrog their rivals and claim sixth spot in the table.

Stowmarket are in action again on Sunday when they travel to take on third-placed QPR Ladies, who drew 2-2 in Suffolk at the start of the season.